Smoking is one of those things that its easy to do, but its really hard to get good at. There are a lot of different factors that go into getting decent barbecue.

1. What kind of ribs are you using(babyback, st. louis)
2. What style of smoker do you have?
3. What time and temp have you been aiming for?
4. Where are you getting your flavor(dry rub, mop sauce, marinade, specific kind of wood etc)

Smoking is one of those things that its easy to do, but its really hard to get good at. There are a lot of different factors that go into getting decent barbecue.

1. What kind of ribs are you using(babyback, st. louis)
2. What style of smoker do you have?
3. What time and temp have you been aiming for?
4. Where are you getting your flavor(dry rub, mop sauce, marinade, specific kind of wood etc)

Excellent points.
I usually go:
1 St Louis (I do both on occasion)
2 Kamado Pot (looking at acquiring a horizontal cylinder style one soon however, see the "Foods Around the World Thread")
3 ~220F, until bones can pull out, then let rest covered for a little before serving
4 Dry rub, kiawe (a type of mesquite) charcoal and guava wood for smoke.

The rub is roughly equal parts salt, spice and sweet, and i brush a bit of evoo and a little mustard on the ribs before adding the rub.

Excellent points.
I usually go:
1 St Louis (I do both on occasion)
2 Kamado Pot (looking at acquiring a horizontal cylinder style one soon however, see the "Foods Around the World Thread")
3 ~220F, until bones can pull out, then let rest covered for a little before serving
4 Dry rub, kiawe (a type of mesquite) charcoal and guava wood for smoke.

The rub is roughly equal parts salt, spice and sweet, and i brush a bit of evoo and a little mustard on the ribs before adding the rub.

I bet the guava gives an interesting flavor. I start with chunk hickory, and when I have a bed of coals I mix in green maple and apple. I have a converted fuel oil drum that was originally used for pig roasts, and I soldered a smoke box on it when I rescued it from an abandoned restaurant.

1. Cherry is especially good with beef and pork. It has a tendency to turn meat a rich mahogany color. It's best to balance Cherry wood with Hickory, Alder, Oak or Pecan.

2. Maple is similar to Alder wood, providing a sweet flavoring and dark appearance. Balance it with Alder, Apple or Oak. Sugar Maple wood is the sweetest.

3. Red Oak is considered the most versatile of the hard woods and is a top choice for smoking.

4. Hickory is the all-time favorite of many Midwest and southern state barbecue cooking teams. However, it adds strong flavoring to meats - too much hickory smoke can turn meat bitter.

5. Alder Ash's natural sweetness is especially suited with fish and poultry and is the first choice for smoking Salmon.

6. Apple's natural sweetness is good for poultry and ham and provides mild flavoring.

7. Mesquite is very popular with restaurant grills, especially the Honey Mesquite wood. The Wesatch variety of Mesquite "pops" embers. Mesquite is oily in nature and considered the strongest flavored wood, so it burns hot and fast. This is not the ideal choice for long barbecues.

8. Pear, Peach and Plum. These woods require a certain level of expertise in their use. Peach and Plum woods tend to lose their flavor shortly after being cut. For the best results, make sure you use the fruit bearing kind of Plum.

9. Pecan,a member of the hickory family, burns cool and provides a delicate flavor. It is gaining in popularity as a smoking wood, however, it can be pungent,so use it sparingly.

10. Dogwood is quite similar to Oak in its smoke flavor.

11. Grapevine cuttings add a nice flavor to fish, poultry and beef but produce a lot of tart smoke. You could achieve the same affect by soaking wood chips in an inexpensive wine before placing the wood on the coals or in a smoker box.

12. Herb woods, such as Basil, Thyme and Rosemary are usually used in combination with other woods. A good combination would be Alder with Basil, and Maple with Rosemary.

I am a dumbass and yes I do have a smoker. The problem has been that the ribs dry out. What I was also trying to do was to see if an image that I downloaded had taken because I was prompted to do so. RA knows a cockend when he sees one plus the image didn't take anyway. What a computard! Some birthday this is turning out to be.

I find that selecting the actual meat is important. Getting the right animal that has been raised under the right conditions is the jump off to a succesfull bbq.

some people swear that starting a bbq with only well-aged free-range ninjers is the way to go, but even smoked I find these tough and stringy in the end.

I prefer factory farmed college-student ninjers. The kind that you keep under florescent lights 24 hours a day and feed potato-chips. They are young, tender and and like veal.

And just one of them can feed you through like... 2 seasons of the walking dead.